


Political Animals

by Altopiano



Category: 18th Century CE RPF, Historical RPF
Genre: 18th Century, Historical, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-28
Updated: 2011-03-28
Packaged: 2017-10-17 08:41:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/174982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altopiano/pseuds/Altopiano
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The young Pitt, just starting his career, teams up with the older and more experienced Fox. Bawdy behaviour ensues, while a series of political crises unfolds to provide the opportunity for a power grab. But who will come out on top?<br/>This was written in response to a request for Pitt/Fox slash. By the end, I could almost believe it just might have happened like this...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Political Animals

**1781**

He arrived in the Chamber as though taking possession, the swearing in a mere formality. Many curious eyes were bent upon him, for here was a William Pitt in the Commons once more! But his own eyes, as he turned from the clerks' table, unerringly found mine, and held them; and the stiff, though perceptible, bow was a civility accorded to me alone.

We had a previous acquaintance, of course, for our fathers had been here before us, and though they were bitterly opposed on every point, it was mere political rivalry, and not a feud: in Society, the Foxes and the Pitts inhabited the same drawing rooms. I was older than William by a clear decade, the pampered darling child of a powerful scheming rogue; he was a prodigiously clever little boy whose father built an empire even while his proud mind crumbled. At age nineteen, _my_ father bought me a seat in Parliament, and alongside cards, and drink, and fornication, I found it to be the best sport imaginable. Now, at age twenty-one, the younger Pitt had followed me here, and with that small bow, claimed his place.

It was natural that the new member should join us on our side of the House. The disastrous American war still being prosecuted by Lord North's ministry had been repeatedly and thunderously denounced by Chatham in his waning years, and the son was nothing if not loyal to his father's memory. But I own I was disappointed when he did not ally himself with me, or indeed with any of the other opposition factions. He was a proud one, that boy - guarded his independence as fiercely as any maiden her virtue. Still, whenever I happened to speak in debate, he would seek me out afterwards.

"Mr. Fox, you were capital today," it would be; or again, "Such eloquence tonight, Mr. Fox! Such passion!"

He made me his special study, and I guessed that, when first he would come to try his own voice in the House, 'twould be but a faint echo of myself we should hear.

I thought it a pity he had not been blessed with easier manners among men, such as it had been my good fortune to possess since earliest boyhood. His own particular set of friends, with whom he was generally to be seen, were a poor lot - colourless prigs to a man. I suppose his fondness for them arose from the circumstance that their very dullness lent him lustre. By contrast, when now and again he ventured into richer, riper company, I noted how awkward he would appear, how entirely lacking in grace. Nevertheless, his seeming _gaucherie_ on these occasions amused and charmed me; and by God, he could drink! I have seen him walk steady and unwavering to his carriage after a session at Brooks's club that left notorious topers - myself included - entirely at the mercy of the villainous pack of servants employed there.

It happened to be on the very day he stood up and delivered a most accomplished maiden speech that I first introduced him at Brooks's - and that night I first unwisely carried him off home with me.

"'Twas a fine performance you gave today," I assured him, for perhaps the eighth or ninth time. "Damned fine. I dare say we'll make an orator of you yet, my boy."

"Coming from one of your superior genius, Mr. Fox," he replied, "I take that as the very highest compliment."

Aye, we agreed vastly well together, vastly well; though I warrant we made for an odd looking pair - he, stick thin and all corners: I, a man of decidedly ample girth. Much wine we had that night, and much talk; hours of it into the morning: of the unjust war, of the villainy of Lord North, of the great game of politics. He was an attractive puppy, in his way, curse him; even in my fuddled state I felt the habitual stirring of my loins, and I decided to risk the toss. I leaned closer and placed my hand on his thigh. When he did not start, or move away, I became bolder, and pressed that same hand between his legs.

Oh, happiness! No maiden ever yielded to me more sweetly, and no gentleman could have been more obliging. Seasoned seducer though I am, somehow lust combined with the wine to set my blood afire and rob me of my ready address, while he--! His hand slipped down inside my breeches as cool and deliberate as you like, as though he had drunk naught stronger than small beer all night.

"What is your preference?" I gasped, for the question was become urgent. "I have no fixed inclination, I assure you, so tell me, pray, and quickly, what is your desire - to fuck - or be fucked?"

He laughed, the insolent cub! Then by way of an answer, he stood and turned from me, and dropping his breeches, bent himself over an escritoire as though in close examination of the ormolu with which it was decorated. Of what immediately followed I retain but little recollection - save only the slap of his bony arse against my flesh as I rammed home again and again; and certain coarse sounds that arose from him, indicative of his pleasure at the proceedings.

 

 **1782**

And as we had begun, so we continued, month after month. As often as one or other member rose to speak in the House, so often did the night end, or the following day dawn, with the rise of another pair of members, equally indefatigable, and equally prone to spouting forth at length. My commodious apartments could not contain our lewd transactions, still less William's shabby rooms at Lincoln's Inn. Brooks's proved convenient for our needs, as did Boodle's, each with their discreet private rooms open to me at any hour. Why, my carriage saw its own share of spills, shaken to the very springs on more than one occasion. God knows, I paid my coachman dear thereafter to stop his mouth.

Among all our London haunts, one place alone remained sacrosanct: St. Stephen's Chapel, the Chamber of the House of Commons. We each had rather suffer impeachment than violate her sanctity with profane acts (even were such a thing practically possible in so public a place.) Though I almost blush to own, I must be the worst libertine that ever lived; for ofttimes, as when my dear friend Burke was on his feet in the midst of an interminable harangue, I amused myself with fervid imaginings: of bending William across the clerks' table, or having him up against the Speaker's chair; or of taking him naked on my lap, with my own broad bare backside spread across old North's place on the Treasury Bench.

A year and more passed, and at length Lord North's tottering administration fell, and gave way to that of Lord Rockingham. He, my ally of old and properly sensible of my abilities, made me the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. As for William, while he lent me, and the new Government, his support, he scorned to take anything himself but high office; and for all his cleverness, such ambition in one so young seemed, to the worldly men around him, far too bold.

This, then, seemed at last my chance to assume the power I was surely born to wield, and to play my rightful part in directing this nation's affairs. But alas, such good fortune was not to be mine, for his lordship inconsiderately dying almost at once, all was soon in confusion once more. Naturally, I was ready to form an administration myself if called upon; but King George had been my inveterate enemy for years, obdurately believing that I - I! - had corrupted the morals of his worthless son. In short, he refused to have me, damn his royal eyes. In my place he appointed that worm, that scheming conniver, Lord Shelburne. _Shelburne!_ Pah! I spit upon the name. In former years, this creature had been a follower of Lord Chatham's, and now he was disposed to look kindly upon Chatham's son; but for me, doubtless to please his royal master, he evinced nothing but contempt. William, therefore, at the tender age of twenty-three, became the Chancellor of the Exchequer, while I returned frustrated to the Opposition benches.

Such a turnabout did not have the effect of altering our relations, I am pleased to say. Indeed, if anything, I am bound to confess that the vigour - the sheer _zest_ \- that William seemed to have acquired as a Government minister, lent them added spice. Ah me, how ineffably glorious were the debates we had that Session! And as if the invective with which we addressed each other across the House were not animating enough, the close of each day's business often merely signalled the moment at which we might throw off all restraint. For at some late hour, closeted secretly in his small Exchequer office, the door locked against unwanted intrusion, ah! then, on many a night, might have been overheard language a good deal less than parliamentary.

By day, the American war having come to an ignominious end, William found himself obliged to defend the Ministry's unpopular proposals for the ensuing peace. For my part, meanwhile, I now suffered the embarrassment of agreeing with Lord North, upon whose hapless head, for so many years, it had been my daily custom to heap scorn and abuse. In combination, it was apparent that our two parties would easily outnumber the Government. The prospect of such a union sufficiently alarmed Shelburne that he dispatched William to me with the offer of a place, in spite of the King's objection. It was the worst thing he could have done.

I received William in my bedroom, in my nightshirt, for he called unconscionably early. He delivered his message standing at the foot of the bed. I stated that I could never countenance serving in a government that had that _jesuitical cozener_ at its head.

"I have not come here to betray Lord Shelburne," William replied calmly, removing his coat and sitting on the edge of the bed beside me. "I should really leave now."

"I am in an impossible position," I complained, though in truth my position at that moment, as William raised my nightshirt above my belly, afforded all sorts of intriguing possibilities. "How can I, in conscience, ally myself with Lord North, after all that has passed between us? I should be discredited forever."

"In my experience, the generality of men understand the shifting nature of political allegiance, Mr. Fox," he assured me.

"You think so?" I said, though my mind was not wholly on the matter of our conversation.

For having brought his tongue, tantalisingly briefly, to the tip of my swollen cock, he now sat back and began to untie his neckcloth.

"You have merely to choose," he continued in the same level tone, "as once you bade me to do, whether to play an active, or a passive, part in what unfolds."

I did not rightly comprehend his meaning, but I had no inclination to puzzle over it just then. He handed me the neckcloth, and extending his arms, indicated plainly that he desired me to bind his wrists together. This was a new game, and one I was by no means loth to try. Accordingly, I tied him, and then, by his direction (he was now got upon his knees and facing the end of the bed), used the remaining length to fasten his hands to the further bed-post. By this time my passions were as heated as they are ever likely to be before ten o'clock in the morning, and I panted to enter him without further ado. His nether regions, however, being still chastely covered, it took some fumbling to loosen his breeches sufficiently to expose them to my satisfaction.

And oh! what satisfaction was to be found within! What bliss in that tight, hot grip around my thrusting shaft! How his slender frame withstood the hammering force of my great bulk without sustaining injury - and yet, his resilience was ever of the hidden sort, apt to take you by surprise, and show itself when you least expected it.

 

 **1783**

Was ever a more unlikely coalition formed than that between Lord North and myself? The one common principle we shared was enmity to Lord Shelburne - that alone united us, but it was enough to drive him from office, and William with him. Naturally, I was triumphant. The King, surely, had now no alternative but to call upon us to form the next government. Together we had the majority, after all, and the confidence of the House of Commons, and no rival faction could touch us. But for weeks no call came, and Westminster was awash with rumour as the indignant sovereign sought desperately for some arrangement that should not include _me_. I heard it said he even thought of turning to William in the hope that he might be induced to take up the reins.

When next I saw William, he had little to say on the matter.

"His Majesty must be deluded indeed, to entertain such a notion," he remarked, drawing the back of his hand across his mouth as he rose from his knees before me. "Why, as things are at present, I doubt any alternative government would last a week. No, he must simply accept the inevitable, and let you in - for better or worse."

Ever fastidious, he produced a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his hands, before pouring us both a glass of port.

"And you shall oppose us?" I enquired. My legs were still a-tremble as I set my breeches to rights; I doubt I could have raised myself from the flimsy drawing room chair had the Prince of Wales himself entered at that moment.

"I must always be opposed to Lord North; just as you, hereafter, must always be united with him. Come, sir," he added, offering me the glass, "fortify yourself. I wager you will need all your strength before long."

The King, realising that the country could hardly continue without a government, relented at last, and Lord North and I took up our rightful places as the leaders of the House of Commons. I once more was the Foreign Secretary, while his lordship took the Home Department. (The Duke of Portland, in the Lords, was the nominal head of our administration, but the real power lay, as it rightly should, with us in the lower House.) Contrary to William's prediction, we encountered little trouble, and as the Session ended for the summer, I felt confident that we were comfortably established.

Nevertheless, I soon found that being in Government involved some confoundedly hard work. While William took himself off on holiday to France, I was confined in Town by business. Things were not made any easier by the King's refusing us all patronage, the consequence of which was that we had few means at our disposal of bestowing those rewards and favours which are so vital for obtaining and maintaining support. I remembered a remark that William had let drop before he departed for Dover - that the East India Company, with its vast riches, ought to be brought under closer scrutiny and control; and it occurred to me that here was an opportunity to lay our hands on a source of patronage that should be entirely independent of the whims of a disgruntled and prejudiced monarch.

By the time Parliament reassembled in November, I had my India Bill ready, and thanks to our large majority, it passed through all its stages in the Commons with little difficulty. All that remained was an equally easy passage through the Lords. I called upon William on my way to the Upper House to watch the debate, and found him in high spirits.

Curse him for a low down dog! I asked him if he would accompany me to the Lords, but he said he had some pressing business that required his attention.

"Then may I _press_ you for your usual _attentions_ before I go?" I enquired, beginning to loosen my breeches.

"It will be my pleasure," he replied with a laugh. "Though I must own I have a taste for something a little out of the usual way, tonight."

My prick gave a veritable twitch at that, for as I have mentioned before, William is _very_ clever, deuce take him. I hoped, in my secret heart, that tonight he might finally consent to play the milk-maid to my farmer's lad; but no, he had something else in mind, may he rot in hell.

Not that I didn't enjoy it thoroughly, though it is no easy thing for a man of my build to remain crouched on all fours for any length of time. But I was a little surprised, for though we had performed _coitus a tergo_ on innumerable occasions, never before had William revealed any desire to be other than the submissive receptacle for _my_ ardour. When I remarked, over my shoulder, on the change, he surprised me even more by his reply.

"Fuck - or be fucked, Charles," he said, his rod already demanding entry at the door to my inner chamber. "Your own words, remember?"

Then for a while I could remember nothing; and afterwards, as soon as I regained the power of motion, I made haste to the Lords, for I was abominably late and feared I might miss the vote.

Oh, the devil! the devil! Contrary to all my expectations - contrary to all natural justice - the night went against us, by a majority of nineteen! And this because the King had let it be known among the peers that he would consider any man his _enemy_ that voted for my Bill. It was the death of us, and I knew at once who was the author of it. The very next day, we received our peremptory dismissal, and William Pitt was installed at the head of a new administration: one rather more to His Majesty's liking than the previous.

*

That was one week ago; today is Christmas Day. While the world enjoys a peaceful holiday, William, I doubt not, has much to occupy him; not least his uncertainty over how I propose going forward when the House meets again. In truth, I am unsure of it myself. With such unmistakeable marks of royal favour as are upon him, I concede it will be difficult to unseat him; and I can be perfectly certain he has no intention of losing the King's approbation by attempting to bring me in alongside him. No; the fiend has played his game well, and I frankly admire him for it, even while I regret the wrong he has done me. For now I see what he wanted all along; and were it not for the numberless tender scenes that plague my remembrance, I must question whether he felt any attachment at all.


End file.
